Unfinished Business
by A Soul of Shadows
Summary: Link and Zelda fall for each other, though it's unclear if they're honestly the best for each other. Follow the tale as Link struggles to come to terms with the fact that Zelda was forced to kill him in a previous incarnation. He comes through, actually, but then she kills him again. Which really just makes a larger kerfuffle as they both become snared in different pitfalls.


**_I got an idea while watching a Homestuck lyric video called Unfinished Business. Naturally, this idea related to Zelink, a ship that I don't actually sail upon. Nor is this anything like Homestuck._**

* * *

 _Time Period: Far enough in the past to be a distant memory_

She'd just had a maid cut her hair the last time I saw her. We had argued as soon as the girl had left. She had left the scissors behind, so I suppose that the tension between us had unnerved her. The topic wasn't one that I imagine many couples deal with, though I can at least reconcile my feelings with the fact that it wasn't something stupid.

Though I suppose that, from my viewpoint, going to war is pretty stupid.

Once I had heard that Zelda planned to annihilate the Gerudos to keep Ganondorf sealed, I tried to tell her that it was not a good move to make. However, I said this in court, which wasn't the best idea, in hindsight. While I was the Hero, I didn't actually have political sway inside the castle. Sure, I looked like a full-blooded Hylian, but I couldn't prove that I was of noble lineage. Nor did I have any idea what my ancestry was beyond my possible connection to previous incarnations of me who would also have had no idea who'd come before them. The actual couriers made a fuss and Zelda had stern words with me later. I pressed my point with her in private.

"I've _been_ to the desert, Zelda, it isn't pleasant. The Gerudos are the only ones who can survive there long-term, so we'd have to draw them out into Hyrule. We would lose territory and they wouldn't because, and I emphasize this, _they live in a bloody desert!"_

"Yes, I believe I gathered that," she droned.

"They've also done nothing wrong. It's their king that should be punished, not them."

"You do realize that they're all grievous criminals."

At this point, I became truly frustrated, "Actually, no they're not."

"Fine. A lot of them, then. Most, really." She wouldn't listen to reason. She's supposed to be wise, but I recall thinking then that having the Triforce of Wisdom may blind her at times. She sounded like the rest of the Hylians with her attitude towards Gerudos. I pressed my lips together and struggled to think of something to say. Zelda, not knowing the tenor of my thoughts, seemed to think she had made a valid retort. Correctly sensing my discomfort, she continued, "And honestly, if you can survive in the desert alone, I can make sure my troops do together."

"The desert doesn't work that way. A single person trying to traverse it will always be more likely to make it out alive. Also, I had divine help and guidance when I went and still nearly died from exposure," I explained irritably.

"Well I also have divine-"

"Several times. Several times Zelda. From exposure, not monsters. It's pretty bad, and it's a miracle that the Gerudos can live there. You do realize that nothing grows, right? Nothing."

She rolls her eyes, "I do believe I know what a desert is, Link."

"That's the problem, right there. You don't know."

Zelda's face then turned pink as she shoved me back with her gloved hand. A slight shock spread through my body like static electricity as I stepped back. It didn't hurt, but I found myself wondering if she had actually just zapped me with magic.

She yelled, "No, that's not the problem. You can't speak to me like that in court. You undermined my authority on a very important matter in front of the people who I need to keep controlled. If they decided that you had sympathies with the Gerudos, they'd call for your execution."

"And what, you'd follow through?" I demanded to know from her.

"Yes," she stated, no longer yelling. I resisted the urge to shudder at the look in her eyes, which was something akin to determination. I found myself believing that she would kill me, which made me spiral through quite the maelstrom of emotions, betrayal not the least of them. I glanced down, suddenly unable to look at her as I felt myself shaking in anger. I turned to leave, not wanting to stay in our quarters, but then she spoke again. Her voice was softer this time, as if the words were meant to comfort me, "I'd have no choice." Regardless of the intention, I became angrier. Or perhaps more upset. Even now, I still can't tell the difference between the two.

"I have to go," I said lowly, not facing her.

"Link," she warned, "we're not children anymore. You can't just run away, you have responsibilities to run."

I halfheartedly glance back at her, "I leave all the time. Now, I think I really need to." I began to walk away from her as she shouted my name. When I ignored her, she grew absolutely furious. I sensed this without even seeing her and she made no sound to indicate her temperance, so continuing to ignore her wasn't the wisest choice I'd ever made. It ranks down with entering a temple of death and despair, which I have done on several occasions. In all the years I'd known her and grown closer, the one thing I always kept in mind was that being able to sense her emotions easily was an indication that they were extremely potent emotions. There's always problems when she gets too worked up, because she looses control of her magic. Usually, the magic would focus itself on whatever caused her outburst of emotion and work with whatever was around. In the case currently being discussed, I was the cause of emotion. The things to be worked with were an absurdly large amount of books, a pair of boots, and the maid's scissors. The first offensive barrage of books hit me square in the back, causing me to stumble, so I whirled around to block.

I quickly became aware of a slight agony centered somewhere on the left side of my face. At this time, I was hit with more of the books damned by the goddesses.

So, naturally, I fell backwards, hissing in pain as I brought my hand to my face only to realize that there was something there that I very much did not want to push in further. Scissors. One of the blades was lodged in my cheek, the other dangling precariously over my left eye. Of course, I could only see this with my right eye as the other one was closed. I heard a gasp from Zelda followed by objects thudding against both the floor and me, but I didn't dare move. She rushed over to my position and knelt at my side, her fingertips hovering over the object that had decided to invade my face. She looked horrified, and in any other situation I would have comforted her, but at the time I wasn't feeling particularly generous or friendly towards her in any way.

"Are you okay?" she asked in the tone of a distressed kitten as she lightly brushes the scissors. I gave her a definitive answer by attempting to refrain from crying out and only succeeding at muffling when I refused to open my mouth. She quickly withdrew her hand, then asked, "Can you open your eye?"

"I don't really want to," I groaned.

"Link?"

"Hm?"

"Open your eye," she demanded. I winced at the thought, but decided that figuring out if both of my eyes still functioned was a priority. My eyelid flickered as I struggled to open it, but I didn't get very far before the pain flared up like it had originally and I closed both eyes tightly as I grimaced. However, this time, blood from some random part of my bleeding face entered my injured eye, making it hurt even worse.

"Damn it!" I screamed and turned my head involuntarily before Zelda held me still. As I calmed down, I realized that she was cursing under her breath. After another moment of recovery, I told her shakily, "It's fine, really. I could still see when I marginally cracked my eye, so I think it just hurts like hell." She sighed in relief.

"Good," she spoke in her normal tone, "If you can still see, then I just scratched your eye."

"Oh, yes, just scratched my eye. Like that doesn't sound completely terrible. And what about the rest of my face?"

"Well, it looks like talking should hurt right now-"

"Yeah."

"But since you won't stop, you're still fine." She then casually reached over and plucked the scissors out of my face. To this, I shouted much profanity and sat up to get away from her. "See?" she taunted. We finally looked each other in the eye as all pretense of distraction left the room. "See," she repeated, "you're fine. So go ahead and apply a bandage, drink some potion, and go on your merry way throughout the kingdom."

When I spoke, my voice cracked in pain, "Zelda, I-"

"I said leave," she snapped.

I obeyed her orders as she places the bloody scissors on her pillow.

* * *

 _ **Two lines down. Woo.**_


End file.
